Schaumburg considers tax incentive to enable trucking firm's HQ
Schaumburg officials are considering the use of a tax incentive to fund the unanticipated costs of wetland and flood mitigation holding up the sale and development of 55 acres of village-owned land as a trucking company's new headquarters.
Village trustees next Tuesday may vote to authorize a study determining whether the Muryzn-Anderson property near the southwest corner of Irving Park and Rodenburg roads is eligible for a tax increment finance district. The TIF could be retired within 10 years rather than the usual 23 years, Schaumburg Economic Development Director Matt Frank said.
Alsip-based Experior Transport entered into a contract in September 2018 to buy the site from Schaumburg for $5 million, but recently offered to increase the purchase price to $7 million if the village can help make development there cost-effective.
"Fortunately for us, they still are interested," Frank said.
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, Army Corps of Engineers and Metropolitan Water Reclamation District identified issues with the development after Experior and the village entered into their contract, Frank said.
The agencies found that $15 million to $20 million of improvements beyond what Experior had planned would be necessary.
A TIF district is believed to be a mechanism that could generate that money and get the village-owned land back on the tax rolls, Frank said. It works by freezing the amount of property taxes governments would otherwise receive at the level of the first year of the TIF. As the site is improved and its value rises, the annual increase in taxes goes instead to a village-held fund for public improvements.
TIF districts usually expire after 23 years or when all improvements have been paid off, whichever comes first. But because such a specific area and improvement is targeted, it's believed that the proposed TIF could expire within 10 years, Frank said.
Even two years ago, Experior had been interested in a further $2.5 million investment in an access road from Rodenburg Road to the Metra parking lot, but had not expected the extensive environmental costs that have since been identified.
If the village board decides to pursue a TIF district study next week, final approval could come early next year.
Even if approval of a TIF district didn't happen until early 2021, Experior anticipates building its new headquarters within a shorter time frame than the two years originally planned, Frank said.
At the time Experior's bid for the land was first approved, the planned headquarters were anticipated to create 200 jobs in Schaumburg and generate more than $425,000 per year for the village through taxes on truck and fuel sales.